Against The Odds 9-07

“So lemme see if I’ve got this straight,” Sean announced a bit later as he and the rest of my team stood in the Elvis docking bay along with Purin, Shiori, and Asenath. “The giant guys are aliens, she’s the vampire that helped save your dad from the bad guy, that kid we saw was banished here and cursed to stay no matter what they do, the guy you saw rescue the headmistress in your vision is now the bad guy that we have to rescue alien children from, and what else? Oh, right, the headmistress knows what we’ve been doing and has been sort of helping secretly from the background. That about sum it up?”

Thinking it through for a moment while tilting my head, I counted the points off on my finger before nodding. “Yup, I think that’s about the size of it.” I resisted the urge to look toward Shiori. It was up to her to decide if and when she wanted to tell people about her own situation and her relation to Asenath. Right now, considering the state she’d been in not so long ago, I couldn’t blame her for keeping quiet.

Sands, meanwhile, was staring at the vampire girl. She hadn’t really taken her eyes off Senny the whole time she’d been here. I was about to try stepping over to say something when Sands spoke up herself. “You’re a vampire.” Her gaze was still locked on Asenath, arms folded tightly over her stomach.

My mouth opened to say something, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Shiori about to speak as well. Asenath gave a minute shake of her head at both of us before focusing on Sands. “Yes. I am.”

Sands was quiet for a moment. I saw her mulling that over in her head, arms held even tighter against herself. When she finally spoke up, her voice was hesitant. “You really saved Flick and her dad?”

Slowly, Senny inclined her head in a brief nod. Her own voice was quiet as she replied, “It’s what I do.”

Again, Sands went silent, biting her lip as she looked first to her sister, then to the floor. She shifted her weight from side to side and stood like that for a minute before straightening and setting her shoulders. When she spoke, there was no grand speech or anything. She just said a single word. “Okay.”

And that was it. I could tell that Sands was still very uncomfortable with the idea of working with a vampire, to say nothing of the giant alien standing nearby. But she kept it down and pushed through it.

Columbus, still holding his sister’s hand tightly, interjected. “Sorry, I’m still stuck on ‘the headmistress knew the whole time.’ If she knows about this whole ‘Strangers aren’t always evil’ thing, why does she let the school teach us that they are? I mean, that kinda means a lot of dead innocents are on her head.”

Avalon, who had been quiet up to that point, made a slight snarling noise at him. “She’s doing the best she can. The Committee isn’t exactly going to let her start teaching that we should be friends with Strangers. Do you have any idea what would happen if the wrong person found out about her opinions and what she’s been doing? They’d tell the Committee and Ruthers would have an excuse to replace her. You think Heretics can be bad now? Without my mother heading things, it’d be a hell of a lot worse.”

“What I kinda wanna know,” Sean announced, rubbing the top of Vulcan’s head fondly while he looked between me and Shiori curiously. “Is how you two ended up on some alien world to begin with?”

Without missing a beat, Shiori piped up with an immediate, “I dunno, we didn’t exactly planet.”

She managed to hold onto the serious face for about three seconds before covering her mouth to muffle her own giggles, making a snorting noise against her palm as her face turned red from snickering.

The others were just staring at her, confused, while Columbus and I both put our hands to our foreheads. The boy recovered first, quickly embracing his sister. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but god I missed that.” He looked back toward me, frowning thoughtfully. “Whatever happened, thanks.”

Swallowing hard, I nodded. It was up to Shiori to tell Columbus the truth if she wanted to. I hoped she would, because I really thought he could handle it. And as much as she had improved just from being able to talk to me about her issues, I thought being able to trust her brother with all of it was important.

Plus I kinda wanted to see Columbus’s reaction to knowing he was sort of Asenath’s brother too.

“Anyway, to answer your question,” I finally replied to Sean while tearing my gaze away from the adopted siblings. “The teleport probe was looking for my mom. It found me instead, because of my genetics and–” Stopping myself from saying too much, I finished with a simple, “things like that. So it got confused, thought I was my mother, and teleported me here. I guess Shiori just got dragged along.”

“Can we sort out the rest of all that stuff later?” Sands put in. “We’re supposed to be saving some kids.”

“Alien kids,” I pointed out mildly, watching the other girl’s reaction. “You’re really okay with that?”

Her eyes darted to me and I saw her flinch slightly before giving a very short nod. “They’re still kids.”

Avalon nodded once. “Right, my mother is going to wait for the rest of us to get into position before she confronts this Nicholas guy. But she says that the longer we wait, the more chance that he might be able to figure out what’s going on. Which means we need to get there as soon as possible.”

“And to get there,” Sean put in while staring at the collection of Elvises (Elvi?), “We’re going to take a ride on these… rocks.” His uncertainty and confusion was palpable as he squinted back at me.

“Aww, Sean,” I shook my head with feigned disappointment while putting a hand on his shoulder to squeeze playfully. “I’d think you of all people would know better, since you grew up around Heretics.

“Things aren’t always exactly what they appear to be.”

******

In the end, we split up, one pair to each Elvis. I went with Asenath since I had the closest relationship (as far as they knew) to her and was the most comfortable around the vampire. Meanwhile, Columbus and Shiori took one and Sands and Scout stayed together, which left Avalon and Sean to pair up.

What followed wasn’t exactly the most immediately professional ride back to the Nicholas Petan’s fortress city, but hey, the Elvises were fun to drive around and it took a minute for the others to work out all the controls. Not to mention getting the hang of working together the way the Elvises required.

But eventually everyone got the hang of it and we all followed Purin underground, tunneling our way through the sand, out of sight and hopefully unnoticed. It gave me time to catch up with Asenath, letting her know what had happened with Shiori, and hear about how her time with Dad was going.

Unfortunately, though the Meregan were able to make the trip shorter by bringing the ship significantly closer to the city, it was still long enough that it was almost sunrise by the time we got there. Which would have left Asenath in trouble, except that Gaia assured us she would take care of that.

Once we made it to the area overlooking the city, Scout sighted in on it with her rifle before bringing up the holographic image out the back so that everyone could get a much closer view of what we were dealing with. She scanned over the sixty foot high walls, the guard towers, and the massive tower in the middle of the city that was obviously Nicholas’s headquarters.

I stood out of the way alongside Shiori. The two of us glanced to each other while letting the others take in the sight, and I whispered, “You doing okay?”

Her eyes darted toward Columbus, then to Asenath, and she nodded. Her voice was low. “I’ll tell Columbus later. He deserves to know. The others… I know how you feel, but I can’t… I just can’t. Not yet. Maybe later. Maybe I’ll get there, but right now I just need time. Is that… is that all right?”

“So you’re telling us,” Sands spoke up then without looking away from the city. “We’ve gotta break into that fortress to save those alien kids? Flick, have you ever considered being a normal Heretic student?”

“Meh,” I gave an elaborate shrug. “Seems like it’d be pretty boring after going through all this stuff.”

Purin, who had been standing beside Asenath speaking in a low yet rumbling voice to the vampire girl for the past couple minutes while the rest of us were talking, straightened to his full height then. “I will being waiting here place with K’lecnahn. When children are being brought to outside wall, I will being calling Binsayeac ship to aborting distracting and come to pick up children and ally-friend-people.”

“He’ll wait here until we’re on the way out, then call their ship to stop distracting the rest of their army and come pick us up,” I translated for the others, who hadn’t adjusted to the Meregan speech patterns.

“Two distractions,” Columbus observed. “How’re we supposed to know when they’ve both started?”

Before I could say anything, Sands interrupted, pointing. “Uh, I think that’s a pretty good signal.”

We all turned, only to find what was obviously the Meregan ship hovering in the air just in front of the walled city. The thing was enormous, like a skyscraper carved out of stone and turned onto its side. It was longer on the bottom than the top, which rose up a bit right around the middle into what was obviously the bridge area, a wider and taller dome-like structure. Toward the end of the longer bottom section the ship split a little, its two sides leaving an open space between them where some kind of large orb of glowing energy the size of a couple cars hovered, crackling with obvious power.

The Meregan ship flew right up over the walls of the city, and as we watched, that glowing orb shot out a lance of energy that struck the nearest guard tower. The tower and its inhabitants immediately turned to stone, then began to crumble into pieces. They barely had a chance to know they were under attack.

“Uh, not to spoil our own fun,” Sean spoke with a raised hand. “But if they can do that, why are we even–” In mid-sentence, the boy’s question was answered as a dozen different shots from the city below struck the ship, sending it reeling upwards and back. The Meregan fired again, taking out a guard tower along the other side of the city before pulling out of the way as more shots came at them.

As we watched, the Binsayeac reversed and turned away, engines surprisingly silent rather than the roar I expected to hear. They turned around and flew away, high over the sand while the guards in the remaining towers continued to shoot after them. I heard the roar of the enemy Alters shouting threats.

Almost immediately, their army was dispatched to go after the Meregan. We watched from our place atop the hill as literally thousands of Alters of every shape and size went tearing out the gates and over the desert atop various vehicles. Some looked like cars, trucks, or motorcycles, while others were more of a science fiction bent, hovering or flying atop the sand. A few were even riding what I swore were horses, some of them just the same as the ones on earth while others looked distinctly larger and more reptilian. It was a completely random mix of familiar, archaic, and totally alien technologies.

And they were all, thousands of them, pursuing that ship, intent on ending this fight and the rest of the Meregan race while they were at it. So intent, in fact, that none of them noticed our little group.

“Okay, that’s one problem,” Sean spoke with a glance toward Senny. “What about the man in charge? And you know, what about our little sun problem? Because I don’t know about you guys, but personally, I’d rather get to know the cute vampire girl a bit more before she gets turned into ash.”

Senny gave him a bright smile and a thumbs up. “You’re taking this pretty well for a born Heretic.”

“What can I say?” Sean replied with a shrug. “Maybe Flick’s a really good influence or something.”

I snorted at that in spite of myself. “Yeah, or maybe you’re just a really easy going guy all around.”

His reply was a grin. “I’m pretty damn wonderful, aren’t I?” To Senny, he added, “To be fair, the fact that you’re pretty cute doesn’t hurt. Before I would’ve thought you were both hot and scary.”

“And now?” Asenath asked while arching a single eyebrow curiously, a smile touching her lips.

After thinking about it for a second, Sean replied, “Still hot and scary. But not entirely forbidden.”

Coughing and clearing my throat to hide my snicker as I spotted Shiori squinting suspiciously at the boy who was flirting with her big sister, I made myself focus. “Right, right, but that’s a good point. Gaia said that she’d ‘take care’ of the sun issue when she distracted Nicholas. What does that mean?”

The answer came almost immediately, but not from any of the people around me. Instead, the sky itself, having been growing progressively lighter with the approach of the sun, abruptly went dark once more. It was suddenly dark again, the steadily rising sun seemingly completely cut off without warning.

“What the–” I looked up, blinking in confusion. Then I saw them: storm clouds. There were thick, heavy, black storm clouds in the sky, totally blanketing the whole area around the city for several miles in every direction and leaving the area below shrouded in darkness, safe from the rising sun.

“Did… did Gaia just… snap her fingers and summon a storm?” Columbus stammered, his eyes wide as he looked between the sky and the rest of us, waving his hands a bit helplessly. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” I teased in spite of myself. “Maybe you oughta try bringing her into your team too, Cyclops.”

He grinned back at me. “You think she’d go for it?”

My mouth opened to reply, but then I hesitated. “You know, I don’t think any of us know the headmistress well enough to say what she’d do. Except for Valley, maybe.” I grinned sidelong at my roommate.

A long, low sigh escaped the other girl as she squinted at me. “It’s been killing you to resist using that since you heard it, hasn’t it?”

My head went up and down as quick as it could. “It was hard!” Sobering, I hesitated before adding, “But seriously, if it really bothers you, I promise I won’t use it. If it’s like, between you and her.”

Avalon looked back at me for a few seconds, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Then she gave a slight shake of her head. “No, Chambers, I don’t mind you using it.”

“So Valley is o–” Sean started.

Avalon snapped a hand out, putting a finger against his forehead to stop him. Her voice was low. “I said I didn’t mind Chambers using it. I didn’t say anything about you.”

Well, apparently whatever powers I’d inherited from the Strangers that Shiori and I had fought hadn’t included an immunity to blushing. Cross that one off the list.

“Do you think your people are gonna be okay?” Asenath asked Purin then, while I was still getting myself under control. “That was a pretty big army.”

In reply, Purin gave a quick nod. “They will being very well. Better being when children are found.”

“In other words,” Avalon announced while starting down the hill, “we should hurry the hell up.”

As we raced on our way toward the hole that the destroyed tower left behind, I caught up with my roommate, turning slightly to speak to her with a lowered voice. “Are you and Gaia gonna be okay?”

At first, she didn’t respond. Then she gave a single nod. “Yeah, Chambers, we’ll be fine. We both kept secrets. We talked it out. Don’t start feeling guilty or anything. It was my choice to keep her out of it.”

I fell silent then, distracted briefly in spite of myself by the distinct motion of Avalon running. When I turned my head away, my gaze found Shiori moving alongside Columbus. Her eyes rose to me and the other girl immediately gave a smile that made my heart skip a little bit.

Oh boy. Oh wow. Was I really attracted to two different girls? And Shiori and Avalon were both extremely different, in almost every conceivable way. Yet I clearly liked both of them, despite the fact that I hadn’t really felt that kind of attraction to a girl before. It was all new and… well, kind of confusing. What was my type if I found both of them attractive? And what about all the guysthat I’d been attracted to in my life? I still found Sean just as good-looking as ever, especially the thought of him shirtless. Just… wow. Yet I was obviously drawn to girls as well. It left me thoroughly confused. Was this what it meant to be bisexual? Was it that simple? Because I couldn’t explain it any other way. I was apparently attracted to both boys and girls, and very different boys and girls at that.

I knew one thing for sure as we raced across the sand toward the fortress city. And that was that this was really, really not the right time to be sorting this out in my head. So I put it aside, locked the thoughts away as well as I could, to deal with them later.

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27 comments

As always, thanks to everyone (and I do mean EVERYONE) for reading, guys. 😀 Next up we’ll be getting into the action and fighting, which should be F-U-N.

Any votes that you would like to give on Top Web Fiction are also absolutely always appreciated, just to help keep the story up where people can find it. If you prefer not to, no hard feelings. You guys are all still the best readers ever.

The question of fanfiction has been raised a couple times, to which I will say now and repeatedly that I am absolutely fine with it. More than, the idea tickles me pink. I’ll probably end up putting up another page in the menu with links to any that actually gets written, so no worries on that front.

Tags for today’s chapter for those on mobile are: Asenath, Avalon Sinclaire, Columbus Porter, Don’t Worry Flick. The Readers Can’t Decide Who They’d Rather You Be Attracted To Either., Felicity Chambers, Flick, Purin, Sands, Sands Is Just Happy That They’re About To Find Some Strangers That She’s Allowed To Hit., Scout, Sean Gerardo, Shiori Porter, Vulcan

Don’t Worry Flick. The Readers Can’t Decide Who They’d Rather You Be Attracted To Either.

*chuckles guiltily*

Sands Is Just Happy That They're About To Find Some Strangers That She's Allowed To Hit.

I think these may be my favorite joke tags. But hey, Flick has finally realized that she’s bisexual. So that’s nice.

I’ve been wondering why Sean has been so easygoing about the whole “Strangers are not entirely evil” thing for awhile now. It’s been bothering me. I have two theories. One, his uncle in Colombia has expressed that opinion before and his being stationed there is more of a political reassignment to Antarctica than a personal choice. Two, he’s a hardliner mole.

It occurs to me that, from his perspective, Ruthers is being quite genre-savvy, as it is he’s still genre-savvy, he just has his role wrong. If this was a story about the dangerous traitor Jocelyn Atherby, then it would be part way justified as reasonable paranoia. Even the blood plague could be considered a gambit to force an ultimatum. Except, of course, Ruthers makes Javert seem merciful and sympathising(?)(Can’t think of the right word).
On other topics, it seems that other Alters are capable of the same enchantment-type magic as Heretics or vice-versa. What’s the power source for that magic?
My guess regarding Jocelyn vs the Committee is that she found a way for Alters to share their strength and power. Since many Alter species have multiple powers, a few particularly powerful ones linked with Jocelyn could give her a massive boost. Do Alters generally grow stronger with age?
Also are there many Alters that give agelessness powers to Heretics? And how strong is Flick relative to an average first year student at her point in her training?
Also, methinks the shipping wars are about to commence in earnest.

Except, of course, Ruthers makes Javert seem merciful and sympathising(?)(Can’t think of the right word).

… sane? 😉

What’s the power source for that magic?

Good question.

Also are there many Alters that give agelessness powers to Heretics?

Regeneration helps a lot, the more of it they get, the higher it stacks. Plus there are a lot of long-lived Alters who sometimes give that as the power-up upon death. People like Gaia combine both of them.

And how strong is Flick relative to an average first year student at her point in her training?

At this point she’s a bit further along power wise due to fighting those Alters with Shiori. Training wise she’s quite a bit further than average due to A: Her drive lately and B: Her tirelessness. She has a LOT more free time without needing to sleep in order to train. Since she can do all her schoolwork and studying at night, that leaves many more hours of daylight for training and exercise.

After this little quest, the gap between Flick’s team/Shiori and the ‘average’ student will probably be wider.

It’s almost as if someone planned on trying to level Flick up as much as possible…
I can totally see how useful endless stamina would be, it’s basically an extra 7 hours in the day.
So, is magic fueled by the souls of the dead or the universal life source?
Are there any other species like humanity that don’t naturally have magic? Or does humanity actually have innate powers that are being suppressed?

“Again, Sands went silent, biting her lip as she looked first to her sister, then to the floor. She shifted her weight from side to side and stood like that for a minute before straightening and setting her shoulders. When she spoke, there was no grand speech or anything. She just said a single word. “Okay.”

And that was it. I could tell that Sands was still very uncomfortable with the idea of working with a vampire, to say nothing of the giant alien standing nearby. But she kept it down and pushed through it.”
Me: Admirable dedication to the task before her. She’s likely going to have many questions after this operation is done, though.

“Without missing a beat, Shiori piped up with an immediate, “I dunno, we didn’t exactly planet.”

She managed to hold onto the serious face for about three seconds before covering her mouth to muffle her own giggles, making a snorting noise against her palm as her face turned red from snickering.”
Me: I am now convinced Shiori was Yang in a previous life, hahaha.

““Aww, Sean,” I shook my head with feigned disappointment while putting a hand on his shoulder to squeeze playfully. “I’d think you of all people would know better, since you grew up around Heretics.

“Things aren’t always exactly what they appear to be.””
Me: Flick’s got a valid point there. I guess it is just too much new information too quickly for him to be on top of his game, as it were.

“Toward the end of the longer bottom section the ship split a little, its two sides leaving an open space between them where some kind of large orb of glowing energy the size of a couple cars hovered, crackling with obvious power.”
Me: Big ship. Those energy projectors likely have a very high output, given their sheer size.

“Was this what it meant to be bisexual? Was it that simple? Because I couldn’t explain it any other way. I was apparently attracted to both boys and girls, and very different boys and girls at that.”
Me: Growing up in Wyoming likely didn’t prepare her for a situation like this. Ah, the joys of maturing and discovering your preferences and who you are, am I right?

Me: Admirable dedication to the task before her. She’s likely going to have many questions after this operation is done, though.

That’s for sure.

Me: I am now convinced Shiori was Yang in a previous life, hahaha.

Now imagine them together. 😛

Me: Growing up in Wyoming likely didn’t prepare her for a situation like this. Ah, the joys of maturing and discovering your preferences and who you are, am I right?

No kidding. At least she didn’t live in clueless denial of it. Her bigger issue wasn’t so much ‘wait, I’m attracted to girls?’ as it was ‘wait, I’m attracted to boys… AND girls? How does that work?’ And before anyone asks, of course Flick knows about bisexual people. Even then, I would think that it would still be something new and confusing to experience it yourself.

The Meregan have amazing patience when it comes to standing around and letting people talk out things they have little to no understanding of / context for in the middle of a pressing crisis.

Don’t Worry Flick. The Readers Can’t Decide Who They’d Rather You Be Attracted To Either.

What, all of the above isn’t an option? We’re readers, we don’t have to be reasonable!

Actually, with the comment about fanfiction, that gives me a silly idea. We already have the heretic power absorb pleasure spike, and readers speculation there might be ways to share powers / power people up. Given the way the power up incentive is set, it seems [i]obvious[/i] how this collaboration would take place. Suddenly being a bisexual diplomancer is (even more of) a very real advantage.

So… Felicity Chambers, Harem Anime Protagonist? At this rate, she’s liable to have the entire team on her string. Plus Shiori. 🙂

But… okay, ugly speculation time. Flick has stated several times that she was *never* attracted to girls before Crossroads, but *was* (and still is) attracted to guys. Add that to the general brain-screwy things (deliberate and otherwise) that seem to come as part of the Heretic gig, *and* the (addictive?) essentially orgasmic rush from absorbing a new Stranger/Alter power… well the question has to be asked: is Flick *naturally* bi? Or is this something that she comes by preternaturally, so to speak? We haven’t seen any signs of this happening to her classmates, and Avalon seems pretty solidly lesbian, so maybe it’s just a Flick thing. And I know that this sudden “awareness” can happen to people naturally in real life. But the *timing*, and the sudden intensity, without even a *hint* pre-Crossroads… well, I have a nasty, paranoid, suspicious mind.

And that power rush. I can’t help but wonder how many Heretics may be in the “kill all Strangers” camp because they’re addicted to it? Just how much has that sensation shaped Heretic society over the centuries? Granted, there’s still plenty of Strangers/Alters who “need killing,” but… well, again, nasty paranoid suspicious mind. Obviously some Heretics are *not* addicted even after long exposure –Gaia comes to mind, and maybe Pericles– but IRL some people are more vulnerable to addiction than others. Other readers have already speculated about how the “hangman” element of the Edge may also be affecting heretic psychology in general, as well.

Huh… there’s a question. Crossroads and Garden Heretics get different “warning” sensations — do they also get different “rushes”?

And the speculation about power-*sharing,* as opposed to power-*taking,* is definitely interesting. Although even if it’s true, I can’t imagine it’s free, simple, or easy, or else the entire rebellion would have been upgraded and curb-stomped the Council.

well, Flick started out w/ a lot of baggage due to perceived abandonment; probably a mix of anger, unearned doubt/guilt, probably a bit skeptical about relationships and worried she would be like her mom. No super powers involved. Finding out her mom didn’t leave willingly, and wasn’t a bad person, probably unlocked some psych dev blocks. And then the usual college broadening…and a hot roomie who swings that way doesn’t hurt…not sure occam’s razor applies but she had plenty of triggers for a change from uninterested/hung up to semi functional on a relationship front…just my $0.02, and I’m usually (and enthusiastically) wrong. 🙂 Some of Flicks apparent attributes include being rather uncommonly objective and open minded. Given a new understanding of her life and relationship exemplars we should *expect* her to loosen up a bit on that front. Eh, I’m making sh*t up again, I suppose.

sooo nice to have a story where the author doesn’t lazily rely on artificial protag stupidity or inexplicable failure to communicate in order to make conflict easier to engineer! I realize it makes it far harder on the author…but thank goodness! And nice use of humor, worldbuilding, great dialog…keep up the good work!

Er, anyway. I’m glad to see that Sands is opening up more to the idea that not all Strangers (or Alters, really) are evil. That’s some good character growth there.

Also, god damnit, every single time I feel like I’m going to decide between ships you throw something like “If it’s you, it’s okay” at me. First Shiori was being all adorable with her puns and now Avalon is allowing PET NAMES.

CURSE YOU CERULEAN. I WILL TURN INTO HAREM SHIPPING TRASH IF YOU KEEP THIS UP.

*Describes army of strangers, noting how different each of them are but doesn’t give anything I can update the list with*

Dammnit Cerulean, how am I supposed to do my job then? 🙂

In all seriousness, great chapter. We will [i]probably[/i] see some action in the next one. And I think that Flick will never learn who the twins are. She’ll ask, they go back to CR and we get something like: